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Jaswant Singh, the foreign minister at the time of Kandahar hijack, flew with Masood Azhar and two others terrorists — Omar Sheikh, who later killed American journalist Daniel Pearl, and Mushtaq Zargar. The terrorists had demanded the release of 36 terrorists from Indian prisons. "Doval was not on the plane on which Azhar had to be flown to Kandahar,"said sources.

The reason why the EC chose to conduct the poll in three phases, sources said, was that Anantnag was a serious security challenge. Anantnag will go to polls in Phase 3 on April 23, Kulgam in Phase 4 on April 29 and the “terror hotbeds” of Pulwama and Shopian in Phase 5 on May 6.

NCP sources told TOI on Monday that Sharad Pawar chose to opt out as his party in Madha was plagued by factionalism between MP Vijaysinh Mohite Patil and his arch rival Sanjay Shinde. A few days ago, the rift came to blows and disrupted Pawar’s speech during a meeting at Phaltan.

Last week, Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a supplementary chargesheet in the PNB fraud case before special PMLA court in Mumbai mentioning these details. ED unearthed the flow of 91% of the defrauded money.

Investigators expressed surprise at the confidence shown by ​Christian Michel in pushing Eurofighter's case despite the consortium being out of the race because of high prices and also as it was a single-engine aircraft compared to the twin-engined Rafale.

Acting on Intelligence Bureau leads that JeM handler Ashiq Negru from Pulwama’s Rajpora was conceiving another terror attack in Pinglish, security forces conducted a search operation which turned into an encounter. While Mudassir and another terrorist have been eliminated, Negru is absconding.

While the BJP has had uneasy relations at times with some of its allies, many leaders feel that Amit Shah has walked the extra mile to ensure they remained in NDA by offering them a generous seat-sharing deal. Meanwhile, Congress has been squeezed out of SP-BSP 'mahagathbandhan' in UP, which may help the BJP in the politically crucial state.

Only highly experienced pilots will operate the Boeing 737 MAX and the aircraft will not be released for commercial flying when certain systems are inoperative, something that is routinely allowed for aircraft under minimum equipment list where the plane can fly and the snag be rectified within a given time.

India has dropped to the second position behind Saudi Arabia among the world’s largest arms importers after remaining at the top for almost a decade, as per the latest data on international arms transfers released by a global think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), on Monday.

With 90% of gravely wounded security personnel succumbing to injuries within a few hours, DRDO's medical laboratory has come up with a range of 'combat casualty drugs' that can extend the golden hour till the trooper is shifted to hospital. The drugs can save lives in the event of warfare in jungle and high altitude areas as well as in terror attacks.

The BJP on Monday latched on to Rahul Gandhi's reference to "Masood Azhar ji" to throw "Rahul loves terrorists" barb at the Congress chief, as the opposition party hit back accusing its rival of deliberately twisting his comments made with sarcasm. Gandhi noted it was Azhar who was responsible for the killing of 40 CRPF soldiers in the Pulwama attack.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday said India was granted permission to wear camouflage military caps in the third ODI against Australia as a tribute to the country's armed forces, a gesture which Pakistan has objected to.

Eighteen terrorists, including 6 from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed, have been killed in various counterterror operations since Pulwama attack, the Army said on Monday. The Army said that security forces have also killed the Pulwama terror attack mastermind - JeM terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan - in an encounter at south Kashmir's Tral area.

"DGCA is reviewing the matter regarding safety issues post accident of Boeing Ethopian Airline B737-800MAX on Sunday. We shall issue additional safety instructions Monday night or Tuesday morning in this regard for Indian operators," said a senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official.

India has invited Saudi Arabia to invest in its strategic oil storage even as it looks to resurrect a $ 44 billion (Rs 3.08 lakh crore) refinery project with the world's largest oil producer after the BJP-ruled Maharashtra government denied land at the initial site. Saudi Aramco and its partner ADNOC of UAE have signed agreements to take 50 per cent stake in the project.